A variety of surgical tools and instruments are used in surgical procedures. Such tools and instruments have many uses, including use as devices to implant or install prostheses or other implantable elements. Such instruments are particularly prevalent in spinal and orthopaedic surgery.
Due to wide variations in patient size and condition, there is often a need for tools and instruments of different sizes and shapes, particularly in spinal and orthopaedic surgical procedures. As a result, a given surgical procedure may require several instruments of the same general type, each having different sizes and/or shapes. Although modular tools have been proposed, many of such known devices have drawbacks that can render them less than desirable. For example, some devices are difficult to disassemble and reassemble with another modular element. In other cases, the connection between the tool body and the modular component is not sufficiently strong to permit reliable use without excess play between the components.
Thus, there remains a need for a modular surgical instrument that provides a sufficiently strong and rigid connection between the tool body and interchangeable, modular components.